Everything about Bartolom De Las Casas totally explained
» This article is about a Spanish priest in the 16th century. For more uses on Las Casas, see Las Casas (disambiguation)
Bartolomé de las Casas,
O.P. (
August 24 1484 –
July 17 1566), was a
16th century Spanish Dominican priest, and the first resident
Bishop of
Chiapas. As a settler in the
New World, he was galvanized by witnessing the
torture and
genocide of the
Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. He is commemorated as a missionary in the
Calendar of Saints of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on July 17.
Biography
Bartolome de las Casas was born in
Seville in 1484. With his father, he immigrated to the
Caribbean island of
Hispaniola in 1502 on the expedition of
Nicolás de Ovando, during which he witnessed the extermination of the
Taínos. He became a priest eight years later, and served as a missionary to the
Arawak (
Taino) of
Cuba in 1512. There, he received a
repartimiento (a grant of native labour) which he exploited. Starting in 1514, however, he became an adamant opponent of
Spanish colonialism, joining the
Dominican Order in 1522. His 1520-21 attempt to create a more equitable colonial society in
Venezuela was sabotaged by his colonial neighbors, who incited a native rebellion against him.
Historical importance
Las Casas became well-known for his advocacy of the rights of
Indigenous peoples of the Americas, whose cultures he described with care. His descriptions of the
caciques (chiefs or princes),
bohiques (
shamans or
clerics),
ni-taínos (
noblemen), and
naborias (common folk) in the Caribbean clearly showed a
feudal structure. He was a mentor of
Taíno rebel
Enriquillo in his early age, being later a conciliator between him and the
conquistadors. His book
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (original title in ), published in 1552, gave a vivid description of the atrocities committed by the
conquistadors in the Americas – most particularly, the Caribbean,
Central America, and what is now
Mexico – including many events to which he was a witness, as well as some events he reprints from others' eyewitness accounts. Together with Las Casas' "De Regio Potestate o Derecho de Autodeterminacion" published in 1571, they inspired the
Dutch to write their "Act of Abjuration" or "Dutch Declaration of Independence" in 1581. Las Casas' "Doctrine of Self Determination" maintained that all power derives from the people; power is delegated to rulers in order that they may serve their people; and all important governmental acts require popular consultation and approval. “No state, king, or emperor can alienate territories, or change their political system, without the express approval of their inhabitants,” he wrote. In one of his last works,
De thesauris in Peru, he vigorously defended the rights of the
natives of Peru against
enslavement by the early
Spanish Conquest. The work also questioned Spain's right to take the treasures derived from
Atahualpa ransom during the Inca Conquest, as well as those valuables found and taken from the burial sites of the Indian population.
The book was dedicated to King
Philip II of Spain. Las Casas explained that he'd supported the Spanish conquest when he first arrived in the New World, but that he soon became convinced that it would eventually lead to the collapse of Spain itself in an act of
Divine retribution. According to Las Casas, it was the responsibility of the Spanish to convert the Indians, who would then be loyal subjects of Spain, rather than to kill them. To address the labor needs of the Spanish colonists, Las Casas proposed that
Africans be brought to America instead, though he later changed his mind about this when he saw the effects of slavery on Africans. Largely due to his efforts,
New Laws were adopted in 1542 to protect American Indians in the colonies.
Las Casas also wrote
Historia de las Indias and was the editor of
Christopher Columbus' published journal. He was instrumental, on his repeated return trips to Spain, in gaining the temporary repeal of the
encomienda regulations that established virtual slave labor gangs in Spanish America. In 1547, De Las Casas initiated theological debates with the priest Sepulveda en Salamanca. Las Casas returned to Spain and was eventually able to bring about the
great debate of 1550 in
Valladolid between himself and the advocate for the settlers,
Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Though the
encomienda system triumphed, championed by the colonial Spanish classes who were profiting from it, the writings of Las Casas were translated and republished across Europe. His published accounts are central documents in the "
Black Legend" of Spanish colonial atrocities. They influenced the essayist
Montaigne's views of the
New World.
Further Information
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